Among the Stars
by Nitesh
Summary: Zim has finally been banished from Irk. Now in a mental state of anguish, he runs into the only person who is the least likely to help... and the two find more in common with each other then they thought.
1. Nothing but the Rain

Among the Stars

Nothing but the Rain 

Zim stumbled outside.

Down the front steps, up the pavement, knees almost buckling, as his head swam.  His eye sight was going blurry, and he hoped vaguely, insanely, that he had remembered to put on his human disguise.

He couldn't even think quite straight anymore, only in the back of his mind he heard Gir murmur, "Don't worry Pig... master is going to be back soon..." before the door slammed shut.

Nothing was right.

What had he _expected_?  One simple transmission from Irk.  And then... Zim's life was shattered... 

_"Quite frankly, Zim, we don't care."_

_"We didn't even know the stupid planet existed...."_

_"...Hoping you were going to die in the atmosphere anyway..."_

_"We never wanted you, Zim.  You're worthless."_

_"Don't come back, either.  Stay on your 'Earth'.  You've been banished, Zim.  Don't **ever** come back."_

He tripped and fell.  The alien bit his tongue on the way down, and tasted blood.  He lie there for a second, perfectly aware of how vulnerable he must be to any people walking by in the twilight, just lying in the middle of the road.

_'Zim... you are a fool...' _he thought, crumpling in on himself into a ball.

He could still hear Purple and Red's laughter ringing in his ears.

_'What a failure...'_

He was so stupid.  Blind.  Ignorant.  Of _course_ the Tallest had hated him.  Of _course_ he was a worthless failure.  He had been blinded when the Tallest had sent him to a planet to conquer it, blinded... thinking that he was getting bestowed some great honor... to conquer a planet that they didn't think existed...

He shoved himself shakily to his feet again, walking to who knows where.  Because as long as he walked, he was safe.

He went to Earth.  He tried to take it over, again and again and again... but he never succeeded.  Ever.  And when he couldn't do that, an assignment considered simple by the Irken, the Tallest's interest in him disappeared altogether.

And when he gave them reports, gave them updates, they mocked him, made him the laughing stock in all of Irk.

And he had been too ignorant to see it.

The houses were becoming even more blurred, and the light was growing dim.  Clouds were obscuring the red sky.

_'I have no home now.'_

Zim would have to stay on this pitiful planet until he died.  His computer, his transmission device... had been destroyed.  He looked down at his hands, reminded.  They were torn and bloody, and oozed dark green liquid.  

He would always had those scars, he knew.  They would always be there, reminding him, making him suffer...

It was them that the first drop of rain fell.

It landed on his arm, and he yelped, brushing it away, then wincing as it burning into the blood on his hands.  He ran, ran for an overhang of any sorts, to get away before it really started...

Too late.

Thunder cracked directly overhead, and a downpour started.  

Zim covered his head vainly with his hands as he felt the Irken acid plunge through his body like knives.  He was aware of someone screaming faintly in his sensitive ears.  He dropped forward as the rain poured harder, smashing his forehead into the sidewalk and it felt like his skin was getting eaten away by the water.

But that was just mocking his mental anguish.

He turned his eyes up, his eyelids being weighed down with cinder blocks as the rain sapped away his energy, his strength, making him groggy.  

There was a house a few down on his right that looked unclearly familiar.  But was it his?  He didn't have any idea anymore.  He pulled himself to his feet, using a pole to hold him up.

But nothing really held him up.

He put one foot in front of the other, inched to the house.

A step.  

Millions of Irken laughing.

Another step.

The rain melting his skin as he forgot to scream as his voice was lost.

One more step.

_"You have no home **here**, Zim."_

Yes.  This was his house, he could feel it, as he lurched up the walkway.  All he had to do was knock on the door and Gir would open it, and he could... figure out what happened next.

Or collapse.  Whichever came first.

Zim was now completely soaked, and agonizing pain just flamed his body without stopping instead of the shorter dagger stabs.  His human clothes hung and stuck to his body.  He opened his mouth to call Gir, but all that emerged was a croaking noise.

Toppling over the steps, he knocked on the door.  There was no ecstatic screaming, "JUST A MINUTE!"  Just a slow, quiet "Coming!"

The door opened, and Zim swayed as he realized that he had made a mistake.  This most certainly was not his house.

Even pain-ridden with his vision blurry, he knew his archenemy when he saw him.

Dib glared at him from the door.  "What do you want, Zim?  'Cuz whatever plan you have, I'll just say right now it isn't going to work!"

Zim kneeled over and blacked out before he hit the stone steps.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ah, poor ol' Zim... damn that rain.  Oh well, there's still hope yet for him... I'm updating soon, so leave me a review... you love it, you hate it?

Tune it next time!


	2. Funny How Things Work Out

Funny How Things Work Out 

Dib stared at the crumpled alien lying face down on his doorstep.  Was this some sort of elaborate trap?  It wouldn't have been the first time that Zim had done something like this.  Dib hesitantly stepped out on the porch, closing the door behind him.

But then again, Zim had never made himself a target, never had made himself purposely this vulnerable.

Dib looked around down the street.  No giant killer robots, no suspicious-looking dog with a pig hiding behind a fence, occasionally laughing about how weird his head shape was.  No nothing.

Dib turned back to the green alien and poked him with his boot.

Zim didn't react.

Suspicion was beginning to edge away.  Dib fell down on his knees, and turned Zim over.

"Holy crap..." he murmured.

He was out cold, his eyes half closed and glassy.  A forest green blood ran from a gash on his forehead, and his hands were ripped to pieces.  His usually green skin was an odd color, nearly paper white, and the water that Zim hated so, that was like a lethal acid to him, couldn't have covered him more if he had jumped into a swimming pool.

Dib fumbled for a pulse.  It was there, but it was very slight.

His breath caught in his throat and he withdrew his hand.  Zim was burning up.  '_He must be really sick..._' Dib thought, his eyebrows knitting together.

"Damn you, Zim," he muttered, taking his enemy's arm and throwing it over his own shoulders.  "Damn you straight to hell..." he shoved open the door and carted the unconscious alien boy inside, out of the rain.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Zim's eyelids flickered weakly, and slowly, painstakingly, he opened his eyes.  He stared up at the gray ceiling, uncomprehending.  His brain didn't work, and everything was a blur.  But eventually, he wondered, '_Where the hell am I?_'

Then it all came back.

The Tallest, the rain, the laughter, the screaming, Dib.  Not necessarily in that order.

He groaned suddenly as his head pounded.  He had the worst headache in the history of headaches.  But he was warm, and dry, and... where the hell was he, anyway?

He was in some sort of room, in a bed.  Newspaper clipping and pictures of UFO sightings lined the dark walls, and Zim could see there was a black carpet on the ground.

The ground gave an appearance of usually being very clean, but not at the moment.  A lot of human antibacterial substances lay strewn about the floor.

Zim looked down at his hands.  They were covered with white bandaging, and as his fingertips brushed his forehead to ward off the headache, he felt the cloth there, too.

A quiet snore made Zim jump.  Twisting around, he looked around and saw the source of the noise.  Dib was lying next to an overturned chair, giving the feeling that he had fallen out of it.  A bottle of pills was in one hand, and he looked as if someone could have screamed about a spaceship sighting in his ear and he wouldn't have woken up.

The Irken sat on his heels.  "Haha, human," he whispered.  "You drop your guard before the mighty Zim?  Prepare to be annihilated!"

A slightly louder snore followed this.  Zim was insulted.

The Irken rubbed his temples and hopped out of the bed.  He would, _perhaps_, thank the human for moving him out of the rain, but now he was going... home.

A splitting pain didn't run through his head this time, but through his chest.

That was all he had.  A base.  He had nothing else.

He opened the door and poked his head out.  Nobody was there, so he slid out the door and down a flight of stairs, entering a kitchen.

Ah!  There was the front door, across the living room!  He moved toward it and-

"What are you doing up?"

Zim felt like he'd been electrocuted.  

"Well?"

He looked around and saw Gaz playing her Dreamscape.  Her eyes didn't even look up at him.

"I am going home," he said, slightly ticked off.  His voice was a whisper of its former egoistic manner- destroyed by his yelling in the rain, he supposed- and he winced.

"You are not," she remarked in a monotone voice.  "Now get upstairs and go to sleep."

"You stupid human, why would I-"

Then, all of a sudden, the unthinkable happened.

Gaz paused the game.

She turned very slowly and stared long and hard at Zim, her purple hair bordering her face.  She got up and walked over to Zim.

"Why?  I'll tell you why."  She stabbed Zim in the ribs with a finger.  "My idiot brother has practically killed himself making sure that _you_ weren't going to die.  The only reason that he's asleep is because _I_ drugged his tea.  So you get your ass upstairs and rest."

While she was saying this, she was shooing Zim upstairs.  When they finally got back to Dib's room (he hadn't moved from his drugged sleep) she pushed Zim over onto the bed and flung a heavy sheet over him.  After successfully untangling himself, he asked in an annoyed tone, "What do you mean I was going to die?"

She sat on the edge of the bed.  "You passed out on our doorstep, and Dib found your temperature was 104 degrees when he was making sure you weren't already dead.  Apparently, aliens are only 86 degrees usually.  You've been out for five days straight."

"Oh."  That must have been the water taking effect on him.  Although he had never heard of another Irken with a blood heat of 104 degrees...

It stung as he realized that he would never know if another Irken had.

"Stupid human... why didn't he just leave me outside to die?  He hates me, and this would have been a blood-free way to get rid of me for good."  Zim hugged the quilt around him.  It was colder then he had last noticed.  Maybe he really was ill.

Gaz cocked her head at him.  "Because you were sick."

Zim pulled at the edge of the quilt and rolled his eyes in a very human gesture.  "What do you mean, 'Because I was sick'?"

Gaz put her fingertips together and leaned her head forward onto her thumbs.  Shrugging her shoulders, she said, "Dib's afraid of sickness."

Zim stared at Gaz.  What the hell did the human _mean_, afraid of sickness?

"Besides, be happy you're here," continued Gaz.  "Because I know you're not keen on going back home."

He choked.  "Excuse me?"

Gaz looked out the window at the cloudy day outside.  "Let's just say that one night you didn't sleep particularly peaceful, Zim.  Thrashing around and screaming-"

"I was not!" he snarled, knowing full well that he might have.

"-like bloody hell, yelling... I don't think Dib understood what it was that you were talking about, but I got it..." she paused.  "So... these Tallest guys dumped you?"

"Shut up."  Zim's eyes were smoldering red coals, and she slowly blinked at the amount of vemon they held.

"Okay."  Gaz took a pillow and handed it to him.  "Get some rest.  You can kill Dib later if you want.  He'll be waking up soon."

She got up and left the room.  Zim stared after her, then stared down at the quilt around him, rubbing it between his index finger and his thumb.

He had screamed?  About what?  Betrayal?  Revenge?  

How pitiful.  He had screamed in his sleep?  Pathetic.  Like a small child with a nightmare.  Maybe the Tallest were right.  What if they were right?

Oh God.  They _were_ right.

He had always been the smallest one, the weakest.  Also the most annoying.  He _was_ worthless, always messing things up.  He and Gir were both freaks who had just been sent to Earth to be out of the way.  He _had_ blown his last, final chance.  If that could be called a chance.

And he had no reason to live anymore.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now I shall respond to reveiwers...

Celestial Star Mali -  Yeah, that's what I thought too (laughs) so I had Dib poke him with the side of his boot.

Black Silver and Cartoon Girl - Thanks so much for pointing that out.  I didn't even notice.  ^_^ Hope I did better on this chap.

MORE SOON!


	3. Why do I hate Sickness?

A/N:  So sorry this took so long to be up!  It's my midwinter break at school, and I went to London and Paris, putting up that last chapter right before I went.  Hope you enjoy this chapter... I couldn't decide weather or not to put the beginning of the next chapter in here... so I'm just like, oh well.  Screw it.  You guys have waited long enough. Why do I hate Sickness? 

Dib slowly, blearily, opened his eyes.  The side of his face was beginning to hurt, smashed into the carpet like it was.  '_Why the hell am I on the ground?'_ he wondered, as that thought slowly registered.  Then he bolted upright.  _'SHIT!  Is Zim...?'_

He looked wildly over at the bed.

Zim was hunched over, his face shadowed and unreadable.  His eyes were shut, and his mouth was slightly open.  Slow, but not shallow, breathing could be heard.  He was wrapped in a blanket, and was sitting up.  He must have woken and gone back to sleep.

Dib sighed in relief before letting himself be consumed by the bitter hatred he had for the alien.

How he wished that he hadn't been sick when he had passed out.  Then he could've finally turned Zim over to scientists.  Proved he wasn't crazy once and for all.  He could've finally been looked upon as the genius that he was.

But Zim _had_ been sick, damn him.  And he couldn't _not_ help anyone as badly hurt as Zim had been, even if it was his worst enemy.

Because he was never going to break his promise...

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~_

_"Mama?" the little boy tugged on his mother's sleeve._

_The pale woman looked at the child at her side.  **Her** child.  He was so brave.  He sat with her always, ignoring the steady beats in the heat monitor, ignoring the IV dripped its liquid into her arm.  Talking to her.  Keeping her sane, talking to her in this room, in this cold, cold room full of nightmares and terrors..._

_"When are you going to be better?"  It was almost hard to believe, sometimes, that he was only six._

_"Soon, my darling.__  Soon.  I swear."  A tear crept to the corner of her eye and trickled down her cheek.  _

_"Mama, don't be sad."  A hand reached over and clumsily wiped away the tear._

_"I ain't sad, child," she mumbled._

_"Then why are you crying?"  His head dipped down and rested, curling next her neck.  She smiled as his hair stuck straight up and curved, reminding her of a scythe._

_A scythe.__  How ironic._

_She raised a hand and patted his head gently before her strength failed, and her hand dropped.  Her time was short.  So very short... she had to leave this one, and the other, she knew.  Gaz and Dib, the two most wonderful children in the world..._

_She didn't deserve children like them._

_"I'll see you again, my beautiful boy," she murmured, seemingly to herself, as his head lifted and his puzzled gray eyes looked at her._

_"What're you talkin' about, Mama?  I'll be back tomorrow... I promise..."_

_She looked at him and sighed.  "You have a good heart... promise me that you'll always use it... my Dib..."_

_"Mama... I... I promise... but Mama..."_

_"I see angels, child," she whispered, her eyes suddenly going glassy.  "And they're looking right back at me."_

_Her head dropped, the heart line fell._

_"...Mama?" the boy spoke very softly, pulling at her hand._

_"Mama?!" he said louder, more desperate, as doctors poured into the room.___

_"MAMA, PLEASE!" he screamed, and struggled to get away from the man in a white coat pulling him from the hospital room.  "MAMA, COME BACK!"_

_Everything became a blur, and he felt something in his chest shatter._

_It was then that Dib vowed to himself and to his mother to keep his promise... he would use his heart... always.  He would never let anyone die in the way that she had..._

**_No matter who it was._**

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~_

Dib moved the chair so that it stood up, and resisted the urge to yawn.  The bottle of pills still lay in his fist, so he tossed it aside.  It fell on the ground, and was quickly lost in the other mounds of other medical helps.  He sat (fell, really) into the chair and waited (impatiently) for Zim to wake up.

Zim twitched, and his head rose by the smallest amount.  His eyes were halfway closed, giving him a dejected look, and his mouth was just a dot, really.  His hand rose slowly and touched the side of his head, then pulled away, and he inspected his fingers as though he expected there to be blood.

He curled his fingers into a fist.  As he did so, the bones cracked loudly.  Dib shuddered, but Zim seemed unfazed.  Slowly, he spread his fingers out again and started to unwrap the bandages with the other.  Letting the clean bandage fall to the sheets, he stared at his palm.  This time he _did_ shudder, and reached for the bandaging again.

"Here," said Dib, deciding to make it known that he was in the room.  "Use this."  He tossed Zim a nearly empty roll of white gauze.  "What did you _do_, anyway?" 

The Irken reached out his other still bandaged hand and snatched it out of midair.  Ripping some gauze away with his teeth, he wrapped it around his hand, not meeting Dib's eyes.  

Dib narrowed his eyes in Zim's silence.  This was very... unlike Zim.

"Your fool sister would not let me leave the house."  The abrupt subject change and just the sound of Zim's voice, oddly quiet and soft, made Dib stare at him.  What the hell was with Zim, anyway?

"Why were you out in the rain?"

"I need to get back to Gir."

"How'd your hands get like that?"

"He's probably gotten himself blown up by now-"

"Are you deaf?  I said-"

"-or the base... blown that up..."  Zim didn't seem like he was even talking to Dib.  He _did_ seem deaf to Dib's voice, talking to himself, almost.  Suddenly his head twitched, and he stared up at Dib from across the room.

"You got any of that human medicine for headaches?" he growled through suddenly clenched teeth.

Dib crossed his arms.  "What's with you?"

"Why would you care?" said Zim, looking for a bottle that would stop his head from pounding so.

"I don't.  I do care about the world, though, and if this is some stupid trick to take it over-"

"Will you _shut up_?!

Dib stopped.  Had he hit a nerve?  Apparently so.  Zim was giving him the worst glare in his life.  If looks could kill, he would be dead several times over.

And all of a sudden, Zim was not there at all.  The door shut, seemingly on its own.  Dib heard footsteps pounding down steps.

_Well, that was weird_, he thought, getting up and moving quickly out and down the stairs after him.  _But then again, most things about Zim are._

The kitchen and living room were empty except for Gaz playing her Dreamscape.  

"Did he leave?" Dib asked her.

"Uh-huh..." she murmured, eyes glued on a vampire pig zipping around onscreen.

"I'm going," he said, grabbing his favorite trench coat and going to the door.

"Leave Zim be."  

That was unexpected.

"He's going to blow up the world, Gaz!  I'm going to be there to stop him!"

"No.  He's not.  So don't bug him."

Dib glared at the back of her head, uncaring that she couldn't see it anyway.  "And how the hell would _you_ know?"

Gaz didn't answer.

The door slammed shut a second time, and now the only noise was the slightly annoying noise of a tiny laser going off, and the click of buttons to avoid it.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Master!  You came back!"  Zim stared down at the SIR unit that had attached itself to his leg.

Gir bounded back inside and Zim followed, still marveling that both Gir and the house, although slightly dirty, was still intact.

A muddy pig was shoved in his face as soon as he walked though the door.  "Piggy was worried about you!"

"There was no need."  Zim didn't feel quite like himself... not yet.  "I think... I'm going to go downstairs.  Turn on the security.  Then you can do whatever you want... as long as it's up here and _quiet_."

Gir's face lit up like a thousand-watt lightbulb.  "OKAY!"  He skipped away happily.  He would probably forget about the security gnomes, Zim knew, but he didn't really care at the moment.  

He took the emergency stairs to the lab to give him time to think about what he was going down to.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There.  Hope you liked it.

Poor Dibby... his mum died.  Sad sad sad.

Review please!


	4. Breaking and Entering, and the Question ...

Sorry for the delay!  And... sorry that last chapter nothing happened!  *Grins at reviewers* This coulda been two midget chapters, but I worked really hard to have it nice and long for you guys!  And... stuff happens!  *Cheer* Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Breaking and Entering, and the Question of Sanity 

Dib snuck around the house.  

And then he did it again.  

And again.  

He finally sat down on the sidewalk and glared at the house, as though it was mocking him.  Why the hell didn't Zim's base have a back door?  Or even a window that he could fit through.  It made breaking and entering a lot harder then it should be.  He could always get through the front door, he knew- the red lights in the gnome's eyes weren't lit, signifying that the security system wasn't active.  But then, were would the fun in that be?

Once again Dib asked himself why he was doing this.  He didn't really have a reason, other then the fact that Zim was acting very strangely.  Dib had questions, and he wanted them answered.

Realizing that the only apparent way into the house was the front door, and that hopefully Gir would be the one to be anywhere near it when he snuck in, he got up and stole across the lawn, trying his best to be silent.

He was at the front door now.  Leaning forward, hoping of his success, he extended his hand to grasp the doorknob-

And the door opened.

"Hiya!" said Gir cheerfully, a pig under his arm.

"Ah... hi."

Gir stared at Dib intently.

"_What_?!"

"You've got a _biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig_ head!"

"_My head's not_-" he stopped, as Gir, his attention span getting the best of him, turned around and walked away, sitting before the TV and watching _The Scary Monkey Show._

Dib hesitated, then followed him in, shutting the door behind him.  _Well, that was easy._

"Where's Zim?" he asked the little robot before craning his head around, making sure that there were no lasers at the ready to blow him apart.

"Master's downstairs."  Gir spun around to face Dib.  "He don't want nobody to bug him.  Not me.  Says stay up here.  Turn on securi-" he stopped, got up, and punched a button in the wall next to the door.  "Turn on security," he finished, beaming.

Dib wondered, not for the first time, how insane the android was.

"Poor Master..." muttered Gir, suddenly looking downtrodden.  "Master is tired... Master is sad..."

"Gir?" asked Dib, slowly.

"Pig told me.  He tells me things.  He says Master is tired... Poor Master..."  He picked up Pig and hugged him.

_Now we're getting somewhere_.  "Why did Zim leave five days ago?"

"Dunno."  The SIR unit shrugged.  "Master came out of the lab and left.  Master said I couldn't play there no more."  He looked sulky.  

Dib nodded slowly.  "Okay... I'm going downstairs now... okay?"

"Okay!" yelled Gir, spinning back around to face the monkeys.  

_Definitely insane, _thought Dib, crossing the room swiftly and getting in the elevator, punching a button- the lowest button.  He had never gone that low in Zim's lair before.  _But it doesn't matter.  I'm in.  I'm going to find out all of Zim's plans, and then he won't have a chance against me.  Muwahahaha. _

The elevator, so smooth in its drop he barely fell it move, rumbled abruptly to a stop.  The doors slid open with a faint hissing noise, and Dib stepped out.  It was very dark, and the few lights that hung from the ceiling seemed to be on the verge of going out.  But Dib didn't mind- he preferred the dark.  The dark made him feel safe, most of the time.

But this was not one of those times.  He was in enemy territory.  Zim could be anywhere, watching him right now.  Although he had helped Zim once, it didn't do much for their mutual hatred for each other.

He started moving silently through the tall racks of alien items, towards the back, were he was sure that a computer would be, full of the information he craved.

When he finally reached the back, his suspicions were only half confirmed.

There was a computer. A big one.  Huge, in fact.  But Dib was sure he would not be able to get any plans from it.

Its screen was smashed so badly that wires could be seen on the inside.  Glass was everywhere on the ground.  The control panel was, although intact, dented in some areas.  But wires still dripped out in places, and in one location a sheet of metal was ripped off entirely.  The only thing that seemed intact was the shadowed form of a metal chair in front of the wreckage.  Dib looked closer, then stepped back hurriedly, almost tripping over his own feet, and shuddered.  Something was dried onto the screen and on the panel, something dark green, so dark it was almost black.

It was blood.

So that explained why Zim's hands had been so torn.  _He_ had done this.  But _why_ would he have destroyed his own equipment was lost on Dib.

A quiet sigh from the computer made Dib jump, almost knocking over several lethal-looking laser guns.  When he had recovered, he peered closer at the control panel.  

On the chair that Dib had thought abandoned Zim sat.

Well, maybe not sat.  Slumped, really, being that the alien must have fallen asleep.  His head rested next to some ripped wire, and his hands (Dib noticed he had found some more black gloves) in front of him held a pen, and a piece of paper was right next to him.  He wasn't wearing a disguise, and one of his flattened antenna was twitching slightly.

Dib cursed himself for forgetting his camera.  But then again...

_I _could_ kill him, _he thought while watching Zim to make sure he wasn't faking.  _Right now.__  He's totally defenseless...  _He shook his head.  _Nope.  Now isn't the right time._  He moved toward a rack of what looked like old VHS tapes, hoping that maybe information was stored on them.  _What would my ballads look like if I had just strangled Zim while he was asleep anyway?  No honor in killing the sleeping either..._

He started through the tapes, keeping one eye on Zim.  Most of them were Gir's movies, and the others had such stupid titles on them ('_Assorted Types of Human Meats'_ was one) that soon Dib was sure that Zim stored his mission logs in the database of his computer, which was no more, obviously.

But why?  Had Zim gotten a virus or something and freaked out?  It was more then likely... but...

_'Security- Lower Lab'_

"Bingo," whispered Dib, grabbing the tape and tucking it in his coat.  "Let's just see how much of this security went on your computer, Zim."

"Yro smai."

Dib jumped, and this time _did_ knock something over.  He dove for the fragile-looking wooden thing and breathed a sigh of relief when he caught it.  Then he whirled around to face Zim. He hadn't really expected an answer.

Dib walked slowly up until he was right behind Zim.  The Irken was still asleep, despite the strange words he had spoken loudly and clearly just moments before.  He was talking in his sleep, but what he had said Dim didn't know.  The alien hunter was just shrugging and turning to make his getaway- before Zim really _did_ wake up- when he saw the paper.

Now, Dib didn't know how to speak Irken, or even decode the weird alien script.  But he did recognize the two words that he _did_ know next to what he figured was a number.

_Mission__ Log.___

He stared at the odd markings below, trying to make sense of them.  Now that Zim had smashed the computer, he supposed that he had to write it down on paper.  And though he had been unconscious for about four days, Zim sure had a lot of things to say.  The Irken writing was in a very small size.  Shaking his head, now just getting annoyed, he was about to walk away- for real now- when the words at the very bottom caught his eye.  They were in human writing, although still in Zim's native tongue.

Maid nan ekasroft lefi.

Dib wondered for a moment what that might mean before easing the pen out between Zim's fingers (Zim only yawned widely) and wrote it down on his palm.  Perhaps he could find a way to decode it later.

Then, quickly backing away, he left the lab, trying to be silent leaving the house and failing miserably (he did, after all, step on the remote and blare _The Vampire Pig Show_ all over the house).

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Zim raised his head slowly and stared blankly in front of him and the cracked computer screen.  _How long have I been asleep? _he wondered slowly before deciding he really didn't care.  Moving sluggishly, he got up and went upstairs, looking into the living room at Gir and his pig watching TV.

He looked at the clock above the TV and swore.  7:45 AM!  Today was a school day.  Of course, he really didn't want to go to school, but all the same... it would give him something to do... and it would not drive him into insanity.

That is, if he wasn't already insane.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dib stifled a yawn and shifted the weight of his backpack onto his other shoulder.  Today really wasn't his day.  As soon as he had gotten back, Gaz, sweet as sugar, offered him some tea.  He had figured that she had just decided to be nice for once or something- that is, until he collapsed.  She must've drugged it.  Dib posted a mental note to not eat or drink anything that Gaz gave him from now on.  He had been so tired that he hadn't even watched the tape to find out if it had any important information on it.

The bell rang, and the kids all swarmed into the Skool to... learn stuff.  Or stare out the window.  Whichever came first.

Dib slumped into his chair.  Casting a sidelong glance at Zim, he noticed that he didn't long like he had very much energy either.  What was with him?!  _Geez, with all the sleeping that he had been doing lately you'd think he had some energy!_

Ms. Bitters slammed her pointer down on the desk to get the class's attention.  "Today we're changing seats," she snarled.  A muffled cheer arose from the back of the classroom.  "It took a long time to figure out were you would hate the most to sit," she continued.  "It took all night.  But maybe now you will pay attention to my boring lectures that took so long for me to think up.  I HAVE the POWER, you see."

Neither Dib nor Zim were surprised that they had to sit next to each other in the back of the room, the farthest away from the window.

"Hello _Zim_," said Dib, putting extra emphasis on _Zim_ like he usually did.  "Guess you won't be able to plot very well now that _I'm_ here!"

"Be silent, human stinkbeast," was all that Zim had in reply before he laid his head down on his hands and stared directly in front of him at the back of a girl's head.  Dib saw his eyes go blank.

_Yep.  Zim is definitely planning something._

"So Zim, what are you planning?  Something diabolical?  Something _evil_?"

"There he goes again..." a boy sighed, sitting a couple seats down from Dib.

"Can't you tune down the crazy, like, _ever_, Dib?"

Dib opened his mouth to give an angry retort when another snapping noise from the front of the classroom jerked them all to attention.  Ms. Bitters stared blankly at half of her pointer stick (the other half lay on the ground) before shrugging and tossing it aside.

"Now, my doomed children," she hissed, "it's essay writing time.  I want a three hundred word essay on our society.  I'm sure all of you realize that it is _doomed_, but it _is_ a state requirement.  So write, before I DOOM you all."  She slithered over to her desk and sat down. 

Dib stared down at the piece of paper that had been placed before him before sighing and pulling out a pencil from behind an ear.  Ms. Bitters was right.  Humans were doomed.  _But_, he thought, biting his tongue between his teeth as he hastily scribbled down on the paper, _there is always hope, little as it may be-_

He cast a sidelong glance at his side as another scratch of a pencil echoed his own.  Zim was writing with an unattainable fury, his purple-gray eyes vaguely narrowing themselves into slits, as he bent over the paper.

Dib frowned at his work.  Why was Zim actually _doing_ the assignment?  He _never_ did assignments.  How he could plot and do the essay at the same time was beyond him.

A loud snap made Dib jerk out of his thoughts.  In fact, it made him jerk right out of the chair he sat in.  A few giggles swept through the classroom as he landed on the floor with a thud.

"Little jumpy today, Dib?"

Being that Ms. Bitters was giving him the glare of DOOM, Dib didn't bother with a response.  He shifted back into his chair.

Zim hadn't moved.  All he was doing was staring at his pencil, his eyes blank and dull, as if wondering what he was supposed to do with it now.  The end was snapped off from drilling it into the page so hard.  After a full three minutes, he finally seemed to tick back into life as he got up and began to walk to the front of the classroom to the pencil sharpener.

Instantly curious, Dib leaned over and glanced at the paper that Zim had been writing so zealously on.  He felt his eyebrows shoot up into his hair.  A half a page?  Zim had already written a _half a page_?

Dib pulled the paper toward himself, all thoughts of his own assignment forgotten, and began to read.

**Mortal Society, by Zim**

**Many people would say that the society flourishes and grows in great ways.  Others say that the majestic society has set itself up for a downfall.  In truth, society is wonderfully perfect- it is the people who make it up that will eventually lead to its destruction.  **

Dib cocked his head and reread the first paragraph briefly.  This didn't sound at all like Zim.  He had been expecting prophecies of doom, but this wasn't at all in the fashion that he had expected it.  Adjusting his glasses, he read on.

**The government is made up of people that are perfect, that the civilians cannot look up to, cannot become.  They are pathetic compared to the model government, disappointing it, bringing it down.  Making it worse.**

**The regular citizens are soon shunned, put down by this example that they are set to follow.  And although they dream, and although they try, it doesn't matter.  And after silent disposals of the most awful of these pointless civilians, sooner or later this wonderful structure will collapse in on itself.**

A clawed hand in a black glove snatched the essay away from Dib, who started and looked up, caught red-handed.  He had forgotten to listen for the sound of the pencil sharpener in his absorption in reading.  Zim was glaring at him harshly, his essay slightly crumpled in one fist.  For a second, both just stared at each other, both with hate, but one with a mild confusion. 

The lunch bell rang, and Zim soon disappeared in the herd of children running for the door.  Dib stared at the door swinging shut, lost in thought.

What the heck was that?  That was never something that Dib expected of Zim to have written.  

_'I want to get answers about Zim, and all I'm getting is more questions,' _thought Dib slowly, idly tapping his pencil in the now-empty classroom.  '_Why was Zim out in the rain five days ago?  Why did he show up at my house?  Why was his computer destroyed?  Moreover, why did **he** destroy it?  What **is** wrong with him, anyway?_'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Longer now, ne?  It'll stay pretty long for a while, although the chapters might be short in coming.  I like long chapters.  Hehehe.  By the way, I just put up a new Zim story called Oak Tree.  Please review it?

Anyways... good parts are coming up.  ^_^ The more reviews I get, the faster I write.  So... even if you just want to leave me a flame, go ahead, although please try to just give constructive criticism, if you will.  Your basic flame I'll just mock.

Click the blue button, because Gir wants you to!


	5. The Fighter is Dead

I am so sorry.  I got hit with writer's block, and it stuck for a while.  I tried to make this long to make up for my absence.  Enjoy! The Fighter is Dead 

Zim looked back and forth across the cafeteria room, trying to find a vacant table and spotting one set far apart from the others, with were clustered together.  He sat down with his back to the other students, aware that he was open to attack from behind.  He usually liked to have his back to a wall at least, but he really didn't feel like moving farther away. 

He instead looked down at his food- if you could call it food.  The yellow-y mass seemed even less appetizing then usual, and Zim felt his eye twitch.  He pushed it away and propped his head up on his hands, staring at the wall.

What this how the rest of his life was going to be like?  Stuck here among these brainless human monkeys, never appearing to age, until he died?  Dying was a long way off from now, too.  Zim was a young Irken, by their standards.  It would be hundreds of years yet before he would be _lucky_ enough to die.

A backpack slammed down next to him.  Gaz swung her legs over the side of the bench, eyes not leaving her GameSlave, and sat down next to Zim.  

"I'm on the last level," she announced through gritted teeth.  "It's quietest over here.  If you make one sound, I'm going to rip your eyes out."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dib's eyes roamed slowly over the cafeteria, looking for Gaz.  It usually wasn't this hard to find the hunched-over figure, hidden by purple hair.  But now she wasn't at her usual table, and Dib needed _somebody_ to sit next to.

Ah.  There she was... sitting with her back to him in the corner next to... Zim?!  What?  Why was she sitting next to Zim?!  He must've_ brainwashed her_!

"I must save my sister!" Dib cried loudly, attracting the stares of many of his classmates, who either sighed and rolled their eyes or ignored Dib altogether.

He marched- yes, marched- over to Zim and Gaz's table.  Gaz was busy, as she always was, with her GameSlave, jamming her fingers into the buttons.  Zim was aimlessly stirring around his mashed potatoes and syrup, and didn't seem to notice Dib creep up behind him.  Dib crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes, looming over the unsuspecting alien in a particularly menacing way.  

"Hey _Zim_," snarled Dib.  "What are you planning?  There's no way you're using my sister in one of your evil plots, and if you try I'm gonna-"

A sudden digital explosion echoed from the GameSlave.  Gaz looked up at Dib, both eyes screwed up from concentration.  

"You just made me lose the game," she said softly in a very murderous way.

But Dib was not listening to Gaz.  He was glaring hard at the back of Zim's head, waiting for him to turn.

Slowly Zim stood up and twisted around.  Stepping over the bench, he leaned forward so he was eye level to Dib.  One of his eyes was twitching horribly, and his zipper-like teeth were clenched.

"I give you warning, Dib-beast," he said, hands cracking as his balled them into fists.  "Stand off now.  You bore me with your... _threats_."

Dib and Zim stood glaring at each other with mutual hatred.  They didn't notice that the cafeteria had gone deathly silent, and that all the student's attention was on them.  Even Gaz looked up, sighed quietly, and scooted away just before they both lunged for each other.

Later, Dib was amazed how short the cafeteria fight actually lasted, and how school fights seemed nothing like they were on TV.  There was still the same mob of people who swarmed around them, chanting "Fight, fight, fight, fight-", but the actual fighting was just confused and uncoordinated.

Still, although Zim was quick, his lack of energy was very noticeable, and as they both sat in two lone chairs in front of the Principal's Room, both had assorted cuts and bruises.  Dib was pleased to see that Zim was appearing to be nonchalant, but every once in awhile would trail his fingers right below his left eye, where  blackness was forming.  Thankfully in Zim's case, both his contacts were still in, and his hair was still intact.

Both beings were silent until they were called in.  Dib supposed it was because Zim was unsure of who had won the fight, so he clarified it for him by tripping Zim as he walked through the door.

It was the same old for Dib, listening to the principal ramble on about discipline in the school and maturity.  After an hour of occasionally nodding and yawning silently, their relieve finally came- they were both suspended from school until further notice.

Dib didn't care.  He hated school with a passion, and had so for years.  He silently greeted the suspension warmly- all it mean to him was a chance to relax and watch TV without Gaz changing the channel.  

Dib was, though, surprised that Zim had no reaction to this.  Just shrugged, turned, and left the office indifferently.  Dib watched him slowly walk down the street, frowning.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

_'I got a good tape,' _Dib realized, grinning, as after some static Zim's computer screen- unbroken- appeared on the dim TV screen.  

He was using this time that he had, with no distractions or other obstacles, to finally watch the security tape.  The security tape had been in a camera of the lower lab, and it stayed stationary, fixed looking in a corner, unless a sound made it swing over to focus.  The computer made a lot of noise, so many a time the recorder was fixed on the screen.  Dib mentally patted himself on the back- this was second next to successfully hacking the computer itself.  

Once Dib forwarded the video to come across to Zim communicating with two large aliens- one red, one purple- and he stopped to listen to what they were saying.  Strangely, the aliens spoke English.  Who knew?

"Greetings, my Tallest," said the past Zim cheerfully, saluting.  Dib squinted at him through the flickering screen.  There was something different about him, but Dib couldn't quite place what...

"The mission is secure.  Please, do not be surprised if Earth is taken care of before the Armada even gets here."  Dib quickly scribbled _Armada _in his notebook next to various other alien patterns.

"Uhh... that's great Zim," said Purple, watching Red spin around on a swivel chair.  "Hey, lemme on..."

"WHEEO- I mean, yes, Zim, well, we should be coming over there pretty soon... we already finished the other Invader's planets off, anyway-"

Dib watched Purple shove Red out of the chair, shooting him a death look.    
"Anyway.  Thanks for the update, Zim.  Good... work."

Zim's face lit up from the praise.  "I thank _you_, my Tallest," said Zim, saluting once more.  "Invader Zim, signing off!"  He punched a button on the computer, and the red screen flickered back on, the black Irken logo blinking.  Dib watched the Zim on TV walk away and out of the camera's line of sight.  Something was strange about that Zim, something was _wrong_.

But what?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Zim drummed his fingers on the side of the couch.  It was nerve-wracking, now that he had nothing to do, stuck inside his base- home- without the school to distract him.  Trapped with his thoughts.

"Gir," he said, finally.  The blue android, who had been sitting, unusually quiet, next to him, looked up.  

"Sir!" said the robot, eyes lighting up red.  

"...What do you usually do at home while I am at the Skool?"

The eyes dimmed back to aqua blue, and an insane smile lit up his face.  "Ooh, I watch TV with MAH PIGGY!"  Gir pulled the Pig out of nowhere.  "We like the Scary Monkey Show... MONKEY!"

"How about... no?" said Zim after a second.

"Okie do!  Then... let's watch some TV!" screamed Gir happily, completely undaunted.

"Fine.  Whatever."  Zim waved a hand dismissivly, and curled up into the corner of the couch with every intention of sleeping for so long he would slip into a coma.  However, it was not long before being shaken awake by Gir.

"Whatsit?" he murmured, slightly disoriented.

Gir's eyes were wide and frenzied with longing.  "The Tah-co Man..." he moaned.  "Must obey the Tah-co..."

Zim's eyes felt heavy as he shifted them towards the TV, which was flashing 'EAT' every five seconds, between a man in a Tah-co suit, screaming and waving one around.  It was so subliminal.  So pathetic.  This whole planet was, with its humans that were too stupid to know that they were living in filth.  Downright shameful.  

Few truly understood.  Like- Zim's eyes narrowed, and he rubbed his left one in remembrance- Dib.  Dib _knew_.  He saw things.  But instead of accepting it, he lived on what could have been, or what could be.  Hope.  That was Dib's downfall.

There was no hope.

"Huh?" asked Zim, suddenly realizing again that Gir was staring at him, yet he had completely forgotten why.

"Tah-co?" asked Gir, hopefully.  

An idea struck Zim.  There was no way in hell that he could stay on this idiotic planet.  It would tear him apart.  So he would leave- but he would go out with a bang.  He would... not fail... the Irken race again... This time he would go out with whatever little honor he had left.

"Yes, Gir, let us go and retrieve these tah-cos," said Zim, with a hint of renewed vigor from this new mission.  "But first, I shall need to make a stop at another store..."

"YAY!" hollered Gir, dancing about the room, but sadly for both him and his master failing to notice what burned in Zim's eyes as a cold, flickering candle.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dib once again pushed the fast forward button of the VCR.  He was beginning to find this tape very tedious, if not downright pointless.  The only things he had realized were- 

A:  Zim had an even bigger ego then he had first expected, and

B:  Zim's leaders hated Zim.  And Zim hadn't even realized it.

Zim was thick- _very_ thick.   _But hell_, thought Dib, _even I can figure out if someone downright hates me. _

Dib hit play and leaned back on the couch again.  Zim, marching in his funny Irken way, was heading for the computer.  Everything was slightly blurred, and Dib had to squint at the screen, even through his glasses.

_Zim cheerfully smiled when he reached the computer.  "Computer, access the Armada."  _

_"Mrgh... whatever..."  The computer screen flashed to life.  The two Tallest appeared, both with pillows strapped to their stomachs, and a cardboard helmet on each head.  Purple whacked Red with his wooden sword.  "Ow..." _

_Suddenly, they both noticed Zim, still smiling.  _

_"Oh..." Red raised his visor.  "It's **you**.  What do you want, Zim?  We're in the middle of something important."_

_"My Tallest, I am just calling to inform you of my progress on Earth.  I-"_

_"CRAP!" screeched Red, throwing up his hands (the wooden sword went flying) "I can't take it anymore!"_

_"S... Sir?" asked Zim, confused.  His fingers gripped each other behind his back, and one of his antenna twitched._

_"Uh... Red..." Purple prodded Red's shoulder, frowning.  "You want some meds?"_

_"I'm sick and tired of this!" he howled, waving off Purple's hand.  "Damn!  ZIM, CAN YOU TAKE A HINT?!  LIKE, AT ALL?!"_

_Zim shifted from one foot to the other.  "Ah..."_

_"I'll try to put this as simply as I can.  Zim... I hate you.  Purple hates you.  Basically, everyone hates you.  You're an embarrassment to all of us Irkens."_

_"Red... let up.  Man, let up a little bit..." Purple hissed.  _

_"NO!  JEEZ!  You've wanted this as much as I have!"_

_"It's just kinda harsh..."_

_"My Tallest."_

_The Tallest glanced back at Zim, temporarily forgotten._

_"Obviously... you are... both in a bad mood... I shall call back later when you are not as... explosive-"_

_Purple's eyes widened.  "Wow.  You really are thick.  We didn't even know the stupid planet Earth existed...  We were kinda hoping you were going to die in the atmosphere anyway..._

_"We never wanted you, Zim.  You're worthless as an Invader.  Dangerous, even.  To us.  Don't come back here, by the way.  Ever.  Stay on your 'Earth'.  You've been banished, Zim.  Don't **ever** come back."  Red seemed to have calmed down.  "Damn... it feels good to say all this at last."  He broke out laughing, and Purple soon followed his lead._

_"What an idiot... hope those humans can stand you, Zim!"_

_..........._

_And the connection was severed._

_Zim stood stock-still, staring at the computer screen.  He hadn't moved or said a single word during the hold rant, and remained so for a long while.  Then, slowly, he started shaking.  From shock?  Or from mad rage?_

_It was answered a second later, when Zim lunged and slammed his fists into the computer screen, shattering it into a messy spiderweb.  Then he slowly started ripping sections of, bit by bit._

_"IS THIS HOW LOYALTY IS DEALT WITH?!" he bellowed.  "NEVER have I wavered in my allegiance to you, never!  And THIS is how I am dealt with?!  You can't do this to ME!  I AM ZIM!"_

_Gir appeared in the corner of the screen.  He narrowly avoided being hit with a flying, sharp piece of glass, and made a squeaking noise before toppling back out of sight again._

All of a sudden, Zim tripped over on of the many levers on his ex-computer, and stumbled over backwards, falling a few feet to land dead on his back.

_For a few seconds, he just laid there, and slowly breathed.  _

_Then he murmured in a bit of a mangled, choked off whisper "Can't... can't do this... I... I am..."_

_And then he was gone._

Dib numbly pressed pause with a finger and stared at the screen.  _Oh... so that's what happened... no wonder._

He vaguely noticed a feeling of sympathy rise from somewhere in his stomach.  Doing his best to shove it back down, he tried to focus.  This made the whole puzzle a lot more dovetail, especially concerning...

Well.  Everything.  It brought everything together.  Zim was no longer an Invader, or even an Irken for that matter.  Dib snapped his fingers.  That was what vanished.  Zim, ever sense Dib had known him, had always been 'Invader' Zim.  But now the title of Invader was gone.  That, in essence, had been everything, had _been_ Zim.  

The fighter in Zim.  It was... dead.  Gone.

So what was a Zim without the Invader?  What did that equation balance out to?

Dib had never really been good at math.  But, after a moment's thought, it hit him.  His eyes widened.

"Oh my God," he whispered.  He bolted for the door, and disappeared into the twilight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As always, review...


	6. Final Destination

Hey you guys.

To a certain few people- I was too amused by that argument to feel offended by it. I did take a side on that whole thing, though, looking back on it. But I don't believe I shall disclose it here, on the terms that I may be whacked over the head with a large and blunt object by a side who doesn't agree. Don't worry, though- I still love you all the same.

Sorry this was so long in the waiting. I had a lot of end of the year school stuff to take care of. ;; The plus side of that is that I've now got tons of time to write! And I've got a lovely Harry Potter idea rattling around now that I've seen _Prisoner of Azkaban_. I love Remus and Sirius to death. Now, the FINAL CHAPTER OF AMONG THE STARS!

Final Destination

Dib barely noticed the ground that pounded under the soles of his boots. All that he knew was that he had to run a hell of a lot faster then he was if anything was to be done. Zim was unstable mentally. If he was left alone for to long, thoughts would begin to foster. And given the information Dib had received, he doubted the plans would be for the good of mankind.

His feet slowed, and he looked up, confused. Zim's house loomed above him. Dib stepped back instinctively. He must've been running faster then he had thought. Laying a hand over his heart, he could feel it thumping wildly.

He peered through the windows from the street. They were dark, and the television was not turned on, shock of all shockers. He frowned. Zim and Gir were obviously elsewhere. That was _not good_.

Spinning on his heel, he started an easier trot back home, his hopes diminishing with the setting sun. It would be hard to track down the couple, but not impossible , he knew this much. Still, his chances of finding them were very slim.

_Wait... why do I _care_?_

That thought made him pause a second before he shoved it aside and plowed on. Suddenly, a voice rose up on the wind.

"C'mon, master! Play with me!"

Dib whipped his head toward the voice to his left. Several dark trees marked the base of a hill that separated the city from the rural suburbs that Dib lived. Dib squinted at the hill, before bouncing back again.

Yes, even with the night soon approaching and his bad eyesight, Dib could still make out the fuzzy, gleaming, hyperactive robot tearing its way around in circles on the hill, and the slightly darker shape sitting a ways apart, looking skyward, as if anticipating something, up the hill a little and to the left of the trees. Dib moved for the shadowed woods. They would give him cover that he might need.

Abruptly he paused. What the hell was he _doing_? He _knew_ why Zim was out of it, he _knew_ that Zim was not a threat. He knew that the Earth was safe.

So way did this seem so important?

_There's something I'm missing... some sort of connection that I'm looking past..._

He froze in the middle of pushing back a branch as Gir unexpectedly stop rolling in the grass itself, and instead stared into the brush. Dib stared into the robot's face as its eyes passed over him, not sure if his trenchcoat and the darkness combined would keep him hidden.

A second's rest.

Then-

"ARGH! FLESH-EATING LEPRECHAUNS!" Gir ran howling over to the oblivious Zim and tackled him. "THEY'E A-GONNA _EAT ME_, MASTER!"

"_Gir_!" snarled Zim with a trace of his old vigor. "You're made of _metal_."

Gir stared doubtfully back out at the forest and into Dib's eyes. "Oh yeah..." He pulled at Zim's hand, all thoughts of leprechauns forgotten. "C'mon, master! Play!"

Zim winced noticeably and drew his hand away. "No, Gir."

"Aw... please?"

"No. Tomorrow. I promise." Zim's gaze shifted away from Gir to look again to the sky. "Why don't you go home now, Gir," he said very softly. "You can watch that movie you wanted."

Dib inched forward. He had never heard Zim's voice sound so close to caring.

"YAY!" screeched Gir, running down the hill in graceful bouncing arcs. "ME AND PIGGY ARE A-GONNA WATCH 'WHEN POODLES ATTACK'!"

Zim and Dib both watched him run screaming down the hill and out of sight.

"Now..." said Zim softly, more to himself then anyone else. He stood up and moved to the top of the hill, while a creeping shadow followed behind amidst the trees.

The city provided a beautiful, sparkling backdrop to the tiny Irken's shadowed form as he gazed down upon it, and for a long while he stood there, motionless. Dib, after realizing after a moment that Zim wasn't going to move again, looked down himself.

The city _was_ beautiful, if you didn't look at it to closely, Dib supposed. Then all you would see would be smog, and stupid _people_ about. If you looked at it from the surface- saw the forest instead of the individual tree- then it was beautiful.

"It's funny."

Dib jerked back and tripped over his own feet, landing gracefully on his butt. Zim's voice had come completely unexpectedly, shattering the night's silence, and Dib froze instinctively, straining his ears to be sure Zim hadn't heard him stumble.

If he did, he didn't show it, but continued to stare at the city. "How something can be so ugly, yet... beautiful. How something can be so horrendously _weak_ and _frail_ can yet be something so..."

Zim paused. Dib held his breath.

"Powerful..." he hissed, turning the word into a whisper as he breathed out. He drummed his claw-like fingers gently against his right arm, then sighed, as if resigning himself.

He held a hand up that was holding a thick, dark object. _Where the heck did that come from? _Dib frowned, puzzled. Light from the city caught the metal, and Dib felt his blood suddenly run cold. A _gun_? Where did Zim get a gun? More importantly...

What was Zim going to use it on?

It looked like an old six-shot revolver, from what Dib could see of it. Which wasn't much, as Zim kept running a hand maniacally over the nose and barrel of the gun. He spun the barrel with his thumb, his eyes watching the movement like a cat watched its prey.

_Whzzzzz-_

_Clit-clit-clit-clit- click._

Zim stared at the gun again, then slowly returned his gaze to the city. Then his arm jerked, and he brought the gun up to his head with surprising speed and pulled the trigger.

_Click._

Both Zim and Dib jumped.

The alien's pale face crumpled for a second before hardening. He spun the barrel a second time, pointed the gun purposefully at his head, and pulled the trigger.

_Click._

Dib jumped again, more out of nervousness then the sudden noise. He noticed that Zim jerked, mostly out of reflex, away from the gun too.

_I should be happy about this. Zim's finally lost it. The world is never going to be hurt again under alien power, I'm sure of that. So why does it feel like I can't even move? Am I afraid? For what? He does have a gun, but..._

_Am I afraid for Zim?_

Dib did not have time to answer his own mental question.

After a second, Zim brought the gun down again and brushed some nonexistent dirt off the end of the nose. He suddenly let loose a shrill, panic-stricken sort of giggle, that instead of easing his (and Dib's) tension, it seemed to make it worse.

"C-can't even shoot m-myself right..." he murmured to the city, his voice catching and hanging in a funny way in the thin air. "Gotta find s-some way to l-leave with honor..."

Removing his gloves, and tossing them away on the ground behind him, Zim looked up again. "Leave and go b-back home. Back among the stars..." Zim sighed again, and reached into a pocket. He pulled out a box and slid it open, emptying its content of a single bullet into his hand.

_ET, phone home._

Dib's eyebrows snapped up and his eyes unglazed, suddenly very aware of his position in this whole thing.

_Let Zim kill himself take credit as genius stop Zim maybe get killed let Zim kill himself feel guilty end up dying a sad and guilty person-_

Zim slowly brought up the gun for the last time, the bullet now loaded-

_GOD DAMN IT! Why does this always-_

Zim pressed the nozzle to his head-

_Oh shit oh shit no time to think no time to THINK-_

Zim shut his eyes tightly and muttered what seemed to be a prayer under his breath as his fingers readily gripped the trigger-

_"NO!"_

With all the strength, speed, and agility of two hundred alien-obsessed kids Dib shot out of the bushes. Which, of course, wasn't much strength, speed, or agility, but it was enough. Dib slammed into Zim with amazing force and accuracy and, overbalanced, knocked him to the ground and the gun out of his arms. It sailed, askew, through the air and landed harmlessly ten feet away.

Dib, obviously nervous for good reason, carefully picked it up, undid the safety and removed the bullet before throwing it as hard as he could away from him. Then he rounded on Zim, who seemed stunned into silence.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Me? _Me_?! What is wrong with _you_, Earth-stink?" Zim seemed to recover quickly. He waved the hand that would have held the gun for emphasis. "I'm doing _you_ and your stupid, _pitiful_ planet a favor!"

Dib grabbed Zim's wrist and yanked him down, forcing him to sit on the grassy slope. To his surprise, Zim didn't put up a struggle, or move to get out of Dib's grasp. On the contrary, Zim almost seemed to collapse, as if something had been holding him up in the first place. He glared up at Dib quite coldly, though, and as if to remind him that he was in perfect control of his actions, and that he was only talking to Dib strictly for his own benefit.

"If I had wanted your death, I would've let you die when you collapsed on my doorstep," said Dib in a suddenly clipped, sharp manner to Zim. "You might notice that I _didn't_."

"Why did you do that." After a moment of old energy and rebellion, the 'Invader' voice faded away to a monotone quiet, and Zim's eyes broke away from Dib's to stare into the ground. "I could never figure that out. It isn't that you were afraid to get blood on your hands."

"Because..." Dib trailed away, hesitant. He hadn't talked about his odd obsession with sickness to anyone before, and his old feelings toward Zim were reawakening now that the shock was disappearing. He didn't _have_ to give Zim a reason, he could just as easily walk away right now, taking the gun with him.

But that wouldn't and couldn't solve anything.

Giving up in his mental struggle, he slid down sit down on the grassy slope across from Zim, far enough from the alien to grant him space, but close enough to tackle him if he were to suddenly try to run. "Because someone I knew once died from being sick. And I didn't want to see it happen again."

Despite Dib's indifferent tone and his own traumatized state of mind, Zim looked at Dib with slight interest. "Just once?"

"My mother." Dib chewed the inside of his cheek, bracing himself for the sure barrage that Zim was certain to unleash.

Instead, Zim turned his head away, seemingly interested more at a patch of grass. "I see." His face was unreadable, but his voice betrayed a hint of embarrassment.

Zim _had_ to know what he was doing. Nobody could be so out of character so suddenly. He had to know that he was confusing and scaring Dib. This had to be a plot. An evil plot. An Invader's plot. So a soft voice spoke in Dib's subconsciousness. Dib was silent a while, trying to wave off the voice, but not quite sure why he was doing it.

_I guess I really am hoping for him to change._

"What I guess I wanna say, Zim..." Dib thought for a second before plowing on, "Is that... I... I don't mind if you stick around. I mean, as long as you don't blow up the world, anyway. Having you around has sure made things around here a bit more interesting... I mean..."

Zim slowly shook his head. "Even if I wanted to, I don't deserve a second chance at anything."

"Are you that _selfish_?!" Dib hissed, angry very suddenly. "Can't you think of anyone but yourself?! What do you think will happen to Gir if you kill yourself? That little robot _loves you_, Zim. Do you want to hurt him like that that harshly?"

Although the face remained in the shadows, the knuckles of Zim's hand twitched. He hadn't thought of that.

"Hell, I won't... even mind," said the boy, softly again. "Besides..." he hesitated. This could either make or break the argument. "You're the closest thing that I've ever had to a friend."

Zim sat in silence for a very long time, staring at the ground. Then he looked up at the stars again, as if it would help brace him, and he turned back to Dib, confusion written neatly all over his face.

"I need to get back to Gir," he said very slowly and deliberately, as if hearing each syllable for the first time. "He will be worried." He stood up very carefully, and Dib clambered up after him. He looked Dib dead in the eyes and said resolutely, "I will see you at school, Dib."

He turned and walked down the hill so slowly it was as if Zim was in a daze that he was trying his hardest to control. Dib watched him until he hit the street and turned the corner, out of sight.

_He called me 'Dib'. That's something that I never thought would happen. _Shrugging to himself, he pulled his trenchcoat tighter towards his body as he started down the hill himself, wind racking his body. He had already started piecing together what he would say to Gaz when she asked where he had gone.

Overhead, the stars glittered darkly. And unknowingly to Dib, a woman gave a small smile proudly to her son.

_That's my boy._

**Hope that is a satisfactory ending to this story. Leave a review, an idea, a flame, whatever. And if you like Jhonen V. stuff, please check out my one-shot that I wrote a little while ago called _Black and White_. I'm proud of it, so go read and review.**

**Love you all!**

**Dragon**


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